drew<\/a> the winning bid from Azle-based Trico Electric. The commercial contractor, founded 40 years ago by Gary Menzies, outbid competitors including Hillwood, represented by Ross Perot Jr., and the Fort Worth insurance brokerage Higginbotham.<\/p>\n\u201cYesterday morning, I woke up and said I\u2019m going to go ahead and do it,\u201d Menzies said in an interview, according to Fort Worth Report.<\/p>\n
His prior top spend at the auction was $58,000.The sale eclipsed the 2023 record of $440,000 paid by Higginbotham for that year\u2019s grand champion. Last year\u2019s top steer went for $375,000.<\/p>\n
Caiman, left nearly speechless by the amount, told reporters: \u201cJust unreal. I can\u2019t even explain it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Codys, who raise and show cattle for a living, plan to expand their 100-head operation with the funds. Caiman\u2019s father, Bret, is a fourth-generation cattleman. The family draws steer names from their fondness for cheeses and burgers.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou always have it in the back of your mind, but it really is hard to reach,\u201d Caiman\u2019s mother, Kasey, said of the windfall, per FWR. \u201cWe\u2019re so blessed to have the opportunity to come here. We\u2019re so overwhelmed and grateful for all the blessings we have.\u201d<\/p>\n
Caiman aims to pursue higher education and promote farming. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d love to go to college one day, and I want to educate more kids about agriculture,\u201d he told reporters.<\/p>\n
The family marked the occasion with a stop at an ice cream shop. <\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s how we celebrate,\u201d Bret said, per FWR.<\/p>\n
Menzies, a longtime member of the Fort Worth Stock Show Syndicate \u2014 the largest nonprofit group raising funds for the auction of its 300 champion animals \u2014 emphasized the youth focus. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a great cause,\u201d he said. \u201cYou\u2019ve got to support the kids. You\u2019ve got to turn it back.\u201d<\/p>\n
The reserve grand champion steer, Cheeto, exhibited by 16-year-old Cash Goretska of Abilene, sold for a record-matching $300,000 to Hillwood.<\/p>\n
The Goretskas also raise cattle professionally.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a blur of numbers,\u201d Cash told reporters. \u201cI heard $200,000, and it started working up and up, and it sold. It was wild.\u201d<\/p>\n
His father, Tracy, added, per FWR: \u201cThere\u2019s nothing compared to this auction. Unbelievable.\u201d<\/p>\n
Other top sales included the grand champion barrow at $123,000 to Fort Worth\u2019s Standard Meat Co., a frequent buyer of premier pigs; the reserve barrow at $70,000 to Kimberlin Ranch; the grand champion lamb at $90,000 to the Ladies on the Lamb nonprofit and Andrews Distributing, who teamed up last year for the reserve lamb; the reserve lamb at $35,000 to Ladies on the Lamb; the grand champion goat at $50,000 to LKCM Headwater Investments and Luther King Capital Management; and the reserve goat at $30,000 to Big City Crushed Concrete.<\/p>\n
The auction, unique for directing all proceeds to the young exhibitors, raised $10.2 million. The 45-year-old Syndicate started the day $4 million shy of $100 million in historical spending and crossed that threshold by the close.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"2026 Grand Champion Steer White Castle, exhibited by Caimen Cody of Hood County, pictured with FWSSR President &…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":157131,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[64657,64658,64659,116,118,117,64652,49983,64655,64361,64654,64653,64360,64656,64651],"class_list":["post-157130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-worth","tag-64657","tag-000-record-sale","tag-caiman-cody","tag-fort-worth","tag-fort-worth-headlines","tag-fort-worth-news","tag-fort-worth-rodeo-auction","tag-fort-worth-stock-show-rodeo","tag-fort-worth-stock-show-2026","tag-grand-champion-steer","tag-junior-sale-of-champions","tag-texas-livestock-show","tag-trico-electric","tag-white-castle-steer","tag-youth-agriculture"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157130","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=157130"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157130\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/157131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=157130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=157130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=157130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}